Janine, Janine
by heart-supernatural
Summary: It has been 14 years since Sarah escaped the Labyrinth. She is terribly unhappy and wishes for a child. In a desperate attempt to gain the daughter she desires, she calls upon the Goblin king...
1. The only thing I ever got from you

Sarah sat down on her bed with her arms crossed firmly across her chest. She looked around at her dull room with a look of resentment in her eyes.

_Things could have been different. _

She closed her eyes and shook her head feebly. Sarah would always regret her decision all those years ago, in the Labyrinth. If she had stayed, she would have had everything she wanted. Everything she could ever dream of. But she threw it away for this life.

This dreary apartment that she shared with a college student that was paying $160 per week for the small bedroom beside hers.

The gray apartment building was wedged between a plastic factory that let of horrible smells and the college Sarah's roommate went to. There had been a huge scramble to get the room. Especially at such a cheap price. But Sarah was picky about her lodger, and Freya claimed to be quiet. She was true to her word and did not utter a sound except 'thanks' every night for dinner.

Sarah lay down on her bed and rested her hands behind her head. She stared fixedly at the ceiling. She shouldn't be here. She should be somewhere else. Be _someone _else.

She had tried to settle down after her experiences in the Labyrinth. Tried to have a normal life. But she was now twenty-eight years old and living somewhere in the bustling city of Chicago.

What was she supposed to do? Go to college, meet somebody and fall in love? Get married and have… have kids?

At that thought, Sarah stood up and started pacing the room.

_A child._ Yes, that's what you want. That's what you've always wanted. A lovely child with blue-green eyes and a charming smile.

Suddenly, Sarah stopped in the middle of the room and looked out the window.

She wanted a baby. She wanted to be pregnant. The feel of your own adorable child growing inside you. And then the joy of having a little baby in the end.

_You know the words, Sarah. Say it. Now. _

Sarah closed her eyes and whispered to the wind: "G-Goblin King… I…" She frowned to herself as she said this. I sound so daft… "I wish for a child. One to call my own… Goblin King, bring me this child… Right now."

She opened her eyes and looked around. Seeing no one, she walked over to the window and opened it. Maybe he'll come through the window, like last time?

Sarah bit her lip and sat down on her desk chair. She span around absent-mindedly, until she finally drifted off to sleep.

When Sarah woke up, she didn't open her eyes right away. Instead she sat in her chair with her eyes closed, breathing in and out slowly. Something warm brushed her cheek. Her eyes snapped open and a pair of cold green eyes met them.

The Goblin king's hand dropped to his side and he stood up his full height. His unique fashion sense had not changed much. The same ruffled white shirt, black high-collared coat, black vest and cloak. The main thing Sarah noticed was his gray-free messy hair and absence of wrinkles. He had not aged a day.

Jareth looked around the room as if he owned the place. He seemed to be ignoring Sarah. She watched him closely as he walked around the room, examining every photograph and speaking silently to himself every now and then.

She stood up and walked over to the Goblin king. He stopped what he was doing and looked over his shoulder at her broodingly.

"So… You heard what I wished for?" She asked carefully.

Jareth chuckled. "Who do you take me for, Sarah? Of course I heard. Now why would you want one of those little screaming brats? You do recall the way you thought about your brother, don't you?"

She looked out the window with a sigh. "I was young then…" She stared back at him as she said this. "…Careless. I'm much older now. And this is what I want."

"You still are young, my dear. How old are you now?" He enquired.

Sarah walked over to her bed, running a hand through her hair. She plunked herself down on the bed and looked back at the Goblin king. "Twenty-eight. Now will you grant me my wish, or do you plan on dragging this pointless conversation on longer?"

Jareth walked over to Sarah slowly, stopping merely a meter away from her. She could smell the distinct scent of him that she still remembered after all these years.

"Still so young. So… helpless. Why" – he leaned in and stroked her cheek with a gloved hand – "would you want to ruin such beauty?" He whispered.

Sarah grabbed hold of his wrist and wrenched it away from her face. "I'd do anything for a child." She growled.

He stepped away from her and looked her up and down as if she was mad. "If that is what you desire, then fine." He finally said.

Sarah smiled slightly, but it faded to soon when Jareth crossed his arms and stood tall and proud.

He grinned silently and broke a minute long silence with: "Boy or girl?"

"Err… A daughter. Of course." She said, taking hardly any thought to her decision.

Jareth frowned. "A girl…"

Sarah studied his face before replying. "Yes… I'd call her Janine."

"Very well…" He murmured, not looking away from her face.

"So… Do we shake on it? Or is it just a snap of the fingers like last time?" Sarah questioned.

The Goblin king tilted his head slightly. He looked as if he was trying hard not to laugh.

She stood up and closed the gap between them. "Well? What will seal the deal?"

Jareth sniggered the familiar laugh she recalled from their encounters in the Labyrinth.

Sarah frowned. "What?"

He stopped laughing and stared down at her. Finally, the Goblin king pounced on her. He pushed her down onto the bed, soon following.

…………

Well, I'm not going to go any further then that :P


	2. My Baby's fun had gone

Authors note: Oooopsie. In the last chapter I said that Jareth had green eyes, but they are really supposed to be one brown and one green… So, err, I fixed that. Thanks for the reviews! :D *hint* They made me update… *hint* … I'M SICK! …No, not sick of you. Just sick. Fever, sore throat, cough, runny nose… the works. And if I don't get better by Friday night, I'll miss out on midsummer nights dream. So, for now, I'm trapped in my room surrounded by my own tissues and strepsil packets, wishing this bloody sickness away… Wishing the goblin king with pop in wearing those pants… Sorry, it's the fever. I swear… :D Umm.. If anyone goes to a high school in Rockford, then please pm me… Is it a dump? Well mine is… so… Just.. :P Sorry, I'll shut up now. Read on.

Janine pushed her way through the crowded hallway of her small high school in Rockford, Illinois. The place was a dump. But they had better music and performing arts then any other school in the area.

Janine loved acting and singing. Acting was something she inherited from her mother, or so her grandparents and uncle Toby said. _But mum doesn't act. She's a receptionist. _

And Janine did not believe in 'inheriting' talents from your parents. Anyway, where did she get her voice from? Her love of rock music from the late 70s and early 80s? The rest of her family called it ghastly _noise_.

She smiled to herself as she made her way to literature class with her heavy book-filled backpack slung over her shoulder.

Well maybe she got that from her father. The mystery man that she has never met and knows nothing about. Her mother always told her not to bring that up whenever she asked. And uncle Toby was certainly no help at all. He was to busy with surfing and skating. He was immature for a thirty-one year old…

Janine stopped at the front of her classroom and peeked inside through the small square window on the door. At least fifteen people were sitting at the various tables scattered across the room. Her teacher was standing at the whiteboard writing up the work for the day.

Janine winced when she looked up at the clock. She was late. _Damnit. I thought I was early, what with all the people in the hallway. _

She opened the door, careful not to make a sound, and stepped inside. She tiptoed over to her seat, with half the class giving her suspicious looks.

"Your late, Williams." Said the gruff voice of her teacher, Mr. Colmo. He always named his students by their last names.

Biting her lip, Janine turned on her heel and faced her Literature teacher. He glared down at her through glasses that enlarged his eyes to the size of watermelons.

"I'm sorry, sir. I thought I was early." She mumbled. Janine had never liked Mr. Colmo. Loved the class, but hated who taught it.

He grumbled to himself as he crossed his arms, making himself look big and tough. "You better be. You're lucky you are my best student, Williams…" She walked over to her seat by the window and sat down with a sigh as he said this. Janine enjoyed reading and always finished the books they studied earlier then everyone else. She gained a lot of teasing for that, but she always shrugged it off. "But don't think I'm letting you off that easily. Detention at lunch."

"But, Mr. Colmo, I have band practice!" She exclaimed. She was the lead guitarist of a small band with 3 other boys. She had wanted to be the lead singer, but didn't have the guts to stand up and take it.

"You should know by now that I don't care." He muttered in an indifferent voice.

"Yeah, W_illiams_." The boy sitting in front Janine teased. She turned to face him with a 'don't mess with me' look on her face. It was Bradley. A boy in her year with scruffy black hair and pimples scattered all over his face. It was a wonder he wasn't teased as much as she was.

"Shut your trap, Jones. I'm not in the mood for you right now." Mr. Colmo said calmly.

Bradley glared at him when he wasn't looking, before returning to playing his Nintendo secretly under the table.

Janine frowned, staring out the window at the lush green oval. A group of boys in sweats were playing soccer. One of them kicked a goal, his teammates cheering him on.

Janine turned her head back to Mr. Colmo. He was now sitting at the small desk in front of the whiteboard, typing away at his small laptop.

She read the work on the board, groaning to herself. They had to write a three hundred word essay on G_ulliver's travels_. And that was after they had finished reading the damn book. Janine had been busy lately with the school production and hadn't had a chance to read at all. She'd been to busy memorizing her lines.

She leaned back in her chair and stared out the window again. There was now a white and light brown owl perched in the branches of the tree just outside the window. It seemed to be staring right at her.

"Why, hello there owl… why do you stare at me like that? Surely you should be sleeping right now." She whispered. Janine had always adored animals. Especially mystical creatures that existed only in the pages of her books. She knitted her brow in confusion. The owl really shouldn't be there. But when she looked back out the window, it was gone.

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The rest of the day passed by uneventfully. Janine sneaked out of detention to get to band practice, only to find that it was cancelled because the drummer – Jackson – was sick.

She then went off to the cafeteria with Will, the lead singer and Connor, the bass guitarist. Upon seeing the disgusting selection of sloppy burgers and greasy chips, Janine passed lunch. She left Will and Connor in the cafeteria and headed out to the library.

When Janine arrived at the school's large library, she gladly found it mostly empty of other students. She then walked over to the shelves closest to her and ran her fingertips over the spines of the books as she walked. She soon came to a laminated card stuck to the wall above her with a snake curved to make a capitol _S_.

Janine scanned the spines with her eyes until she found _Gulliver's travels_. It wasn't that she didn't like the book; it was just that school made it mind-numbingly boring. One can only probe and probe at something for a certain amount of time before you start shying away from it.

But Janine wasn't about to fail literature just because she found the novel _boring_. Oh, no. That was a high crime, in her eyes. Especially if she wanted to be a scriptwriter or author or anything else of that nature.

She clutched the book to her chest and walked towards the back of the library, where a couple of tables and sofas were scattered. Janine stopped in her tracks and bit her lip.

She sighed, turned around and walked back to the shelves. She found the _C-_section and found _Alice in wonderland _there in golden binding. She smiled to herself and continued walking towards the back of the library.

Janine sat down with a heaving sigh. She crossed her legs in an Indian position and opened _Gulliver's travels_. She thumbed through the introduction with a furrowed brow until she finally came to the beginning of the story. _And fifty-three pages in, I finally find the first chapter of this dreary book. My, of my. _She thought to herself.

After half an hour of reading the well-read novel, Janine put the book down and frowned. She had at least forty-five minutes left until she had to go to music class. That was all very well, but she had to sing 'Love me tender' in front of the entire class. Well, it was a good song, but singing it while shaking with terror won't be good at all.

It was her fault the teacher had told her to sing. _If you had not been singing in class, without thinking about the people around you and, more importantly, the teacher at the front of the classroom then you wouldn't be worrying about such things_.

She picked up _Alice in wonderland _and opened up to her favourite part, the mad hatter's tea party. She giggled silently every time the hatter made a remark.

Janine noticed the book before her darkening. The table and couch to. It was as if someone had dimmed the lights. But when she looked up, she realized it was merely a shadow of someone standing behind her.

She turned around in her seat to face the mystery person, expecting to meet the brown eyes of her best friend, Cassie. But there was no one to be seen. Her eyebrows knitted together in confusion, Janine turned back to look at the table where she had first seen the shadow. Again, there was nothing there.

She rubbed her eyes, tiredly. _Congratulations, Janine, you have gone nuts_. She thought sullenly.

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:\ Wellsies. Enjoy it? Well then. Review or pm me. And umm I-…… RAAARACHOO!…… D: That sucks. Anyway, I'll be fine. Nothing a little magic dance, Jimi Hendrix and Queen can't fix…


	3. Chilly down

**Author's note: Dew be dewie dewieee! Umm… HERE I AM! This one took a little longer. It was originally attached to the end of the second chapter, but it sort of took on a life of it's own. **_**As the world falls down, **_**sung by David Bowie in ballroom scene. Look it up on youtube and listen to it while reading if you want. Umm… Thanks for the reviews! They really kept me going. And, Jareth, the labyrinth, Sarah and all over blah blah blah belongs to their rightful owners, not me. If they did, I wouldn't be writing this disclaimer, would I?**

**When Janine finally got home, after missing her bus and walking all the way, she went straight to her room and lay down on the bed.**

_**I hate my life, I hate my life, I hate my LIFE. **_

**Music class had gone horribly. Well, actually, the class was quite interesting. They learned a new song on guitar and Steven got his hands on the drums while the teacher was gone. It was her **_**singing **_**that went horribly. She had gotten most of the lyrics wrong - for instance: Love me, t-t-twender. Luh-love me tweet. Never l-l-let me grow. You ha-have made my wife complete… and I wuve you so - due to her constant shaking and stuttering. **

**The teacher had told her to sit down and gather herself. Cassie had given her the hint of closing her eyes while singing, which she did. It helped her with singing better, but she still got half the lyrics wrong. **

**Janine rolled over and buried her face in the pillow. **_**Shall I reiterate? I really, really, really, REALLY hate my LIFE! **_

**It wasn't as bad as she put it out to be. She went to a great school, had nice friends that cared about her, had a mother that actually **_**understands **_**her, was in a band and lived in a well portioned two-story house. She hadn't a father to scold her, but that did not matter to her. But Janine wanted more. She wanted to live by the sea, in a house larger then this one with shelves filled to the brim with books adorning the walls. She wanted to go on great adventures and return with fantastic tales of her exploits on said journey.**

_**I wish…I wish things were different. I wish someone… would come and make things more exciting, right now! I wish that it-**_

**Her train of thought was interrupted by a knock on the door. Janine's eyes shot open. **

_**Okay… That must be them now! **_

**She stood up and made her way out of her bedroom, not bothering to check her appearance. She opened the door with a furrowed brow, anxious to meet the visitor. **

**There was no one there. A white van with **_**thunder-or-lightening couriers **_**painted on the side in big red and white letters drove away. She frowned as she looked down at the doorstep. **

**There was a large brown box sitting there on the welcome mat. It had no tape keeping the flaps closed. It was just… there.**

"**Rightio…" She murmured as she kneeled down to get a better look at it. Her name was scrawled on the side in large curly letters. Janine picked up the box, finding it very heavy. She dropped it inside, before turning around and closing the door.**

Janine walked back over to the box, picked it up and took it into her room. She put it down on her bed with a huff.

"Wander what is inside that makes this darn box so heavy…" She murmured to herself as she sat down beside the box and opened the top flaps. Inside, Janine found treasures she had hardly expected. A plush toy, which on closer examination turned out to be a fox like creature, a few antique looking books, a mirror that showed her own surprised face staring back at her and a gorgeous red mask with black horns and a skeleton hand acting as a handle.

Janine first took out the plush fox. It had a black eye patch, blue hat with a yellow feather sticking out the back and was wearing a red, black and yellow outfit that seemed vaguely familiar. It smiled up at her with kind black eyes.

She then took out the mirror, finding it to be made of a very heavy brass. On the back was a complex pattern that resembled a labyrinth. Janine traced it with her fingers. Failing to get to the middle of the labyrinth, she put it down beside her and looked inside the box for another item.

She took the books out, saving the wonderful mask for last. At the sight of the first book, Janine gasped in surprise. It was a well read copy of _Treasure Island_. She used to have her own copy, but it was lost years ago when they moved to Rockford. She found the next two books to be _Alice in wonderland _and it's sequel _Through the looking glass_. A small smile spread across her face as she went through the rest of the books.

Janine whispered their names out loud as she stroked the covers and put them down beside her to make a small pile, "_The secret garden, Huckleberry Finn, Grimm's Fairy Tales, the princess and the goblin, king Solomon's mines _and…" She stopped on one thick brown book with a scowl. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me."

Janine put _Gulliver's travels _down with the other books, missing the small book in red binding that was hidden behind it. She peaked back in the box, intending to take out the mask, but finding something else beneath it.

She took out the heavy gold clock and frowned at it. Instead of having only twelve numbers, there were thirteen numbers in bold black letters. And what was more, instead of staying upright as the numbers continued down the bottom of the clock, they were upside down.

"Well that's… odd." She muttered, carefully putting the old clock down beside the pile of books.

Janine turned back to the box and gently took out the mask. She found the surface of the mask to be smooth as she traced the contours with her fingertips. She brought the mask up to her face and looked around the room through the eye holes. The mask gave off a tantalizing fragrance of peaches.

Janine smiled, standing up and walking briskly out of her bedroom with the mask still held up to her face. She spun around gracefully on her heel, letting her skirt flow out around her. She giggled, hardly noticing the bells that chimed in the distance, growing louder and louder as she drew closer to the bathroom. She stopped at the top of the stairs and looked around her, finally noticing the strange music.

"Did mum leave the T.V on…?" She asked no-one in particular, in a dreamy voice.

Shrugging her shoulders, Janine continued walking towards the bathroom. She opened the door and stepped inside. The teen stood in front of the mirror and examined her reflection through the eye holes of the mask. She was wearing a pleated white skirt that reached her knees, a black cotton open fronted jumper over a plain brown blouse, black stockings, brown boots and a red beret over her straight blonde hair. Janine always wore such clothes, striving to be different and buying the clothes with her own hard-earned money. The fact that her school had no dress code or uniform holding her back certainly helped.

She lowered the mask and watched her mismatched blue eyes - one darker then the other - widen as the music grew louder and louder. Laughter sounded about her, but when she looked around for the source, she found no-one.

_As such a sad love, deep in your eyes, a kind of pale jewel…_

_Open and closed within your eyes, I'll place the sky within your eyes_.

The 16-year-old's vision blurred and everything around her seemed to spin, but her feet stayed firmly planted on the tiled floor. She clutched the mask to her chest, her hand clenching and un-clenching in time with the music.

_There's such a fooled heart, beating so fast in search of new dreams, _

_A love that will last within your heart, I'll place the moon within your heart…_

Janine's bottom lip trembled as she slowly backed away from the mirror. She could almost feel eyes watching her but knowing there was no-one there, she did not search the room for them. The voice seemed so close, as if the singer was standing right next to her, whispering the lyrics in her ear.

_As the pain sweeps through, makes no sense for you_

_Every thrill has gonst, wasn't to much fun at all…_

_But I'll be there for you-ooh-ooh, as the world falls down_

It was like nothing she had ever heard before. The voice was unique, yet daunting. Beautiful and tempting, yet absolutely terrifying. The lyrics were magical and poetic. Janine found herself wishing for a pen and paper to write them down, but dared not stray from the bathroom, lest the singing cease in her absence.

_Falling… _

_(as the world) Falling down… Falling in love. _

_I'll paint you mornings of gold, I'll spin you valentine evenings _

_Though we're strangers till now, we're choosing the path between the stars_

_I'll leave my love, between the stars…_

The mask dropped to the floor with a loud clatter, the music and singing stopping with it. Janine blinked, looking around with a gasp on her lips. She almost stepped on the mask, but thankfully noticed it sitting beside her foot and kneeled down to pick it up.

She absent-mindedly stroked the left horn with her fingertips. The teenager put the mask down beside her and leaned against the wall, drawing her legs up to her chest.

The song had left her stomach in a knot, and tears streamed down her face for no real reason. Swallowing hard, she closed her eyes and watched the different colors swirling behind her eyelids.

"Janine?" A soft voice gasped, seemingly coming from no-where. Janine's eyes snapped open and she looked over at her mother, standing in the doorway in her work clothes staring at her. "Janine, are you alright?" Sarah walked over to her daughter and kneeled down beside her, watching her face curiously. With Janine's blonde hair and Sarah's dark brown hair, the contrast between them was great. Their eyes were nothing alike either. But everyone in her family claimed that her facial features looked exactly like her mother when she was fifteen-years-old.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Janine murmured, wiping away the tears with her sleeve.

Her mother frowned. Clearly she was not fine, but Sarah knew better then to dwell in the teenager's personal life unless absolutely necessary. She noticed the mask lying daftly beside Janine and picked it up. She suppressed a gasp of shock with great difficulty and looked down at her daughter. Janine sat there with a dreary look on her face, but when she noticed the mask in her mothers hands, she looked up into her eyes with worry.

_Why does it not effect her the way it did me? Does she have to wear the mask in order for it to work?_

"Where did you get this?" She asked, struggling to sound indifferent.

Janine furrowed her brow, finding it hard to lie to her mother. But she somehow knew this mask was something that's origins needed to be kept a secret. "It was in a box up in the attic." She answered, shrugging her shoulders and finding it easier to lie then she had expected. "Must belong to the family that lived here before us… It's exquisite, don't you think?"

Sarah could do nothing but nod in reply as she gazed into the eyes of the mask.

"Oh, yes. Very beautiful. I don't think it belongs to the family though. All the same, you should be very careful with it." Sarah murmured, handing the mask back to Janine.

She nodded, turning the mask over and over in her hands as she watched her mother leave the bathroom unsteadily.

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Tat tat tatta tat. Umm… The font used to scrawl her name on the box would be Calibri. I found it very labyrinth-ish, but if you don't like it, then choose your own font… Keep reviewing J


	4. We can glide along

**I'm so very sorry that I havn't updated in so long. I'd completely forgotten about this story and the existence of my fanfiction account. But I just got a few emails from that reminded me. All due to Cujya, so thank you :) And I'm sorry if anyone received that story alert before when I updated. I hadn't added anything at the beginning and it needed a little editing and yeah. But here's the chapter and there'll be a few more to come! **

The goblin king lounged in his throne with his legs dangling leisurely over the armrest. In his left hand, he held a crystal with a picture of a girl's face lighting up as she read the covers of books found in the box sitting beside her in it.

The girl's room, he noticed, had changed again. The bed was now on the west side of the room, facing her long shelf which was filled with CDs and books. On the wall behind her were two posters. One with four pictures of a daft looking man wearing a black and white striped shirt, dancing and seemingly defying gravity in the last two poses; and the other of four men with identical haircuts walking down a street in the Aboveground.

When the girl reached back into the box and took a distorted goblin-mask out of the box, Jareth whispered, "Careful now, Janine. Don't want to be losing you before you have a chance to utilize your next wish…"

His eyes narrowed as she brought the mask up to her face. _Well, at least she hasn't noticed that little scamp from the bog is missing_.

The goblin king couldn't help but smile as she waltzed up the stairs with the mask held over her face. Luckily the goblins did not notice his small show of happiness, as it disappeared almost as soon as it appeared.

He watched on with a frown plastered on his face as Janine started when the hallucination began. Oh, Jareth could hear the laughter. He could hear his own voice singing to the poor unsuspecting girl. Hell, was that the peaches he smelt radiating off the crystal before him? But he had not planned this. No, there was not supposed to be any magic left on the mask…

Had he not told Bonebrain to check the mask thoroughly for any trace of his spell used to create the bubble ballroom and all it's contents?

The goblin king stood up and searched the room with hawk-like eyes for the little green goblin that was extremely short compared to all his other subjects. His eyes found the puny goblin cowering in a corner as his much larger older brothers surrounded him with mischievous grins on their faces.

Jareth, feeling no sympathy whatsoever, walked over to Bonebrain - the crystal still clasped in his firm grip - and picked him up by the scruff of his neck with ease. He glared at the goblin, who grinned back sheepishly.

"Many thanks, ya' highness. I thought I was done for!" He exclaimed.

"Bonebrain," The goblin king growled, "did you carry out the favor I asked of you?"

The goblin thought for a moment, before looking back at Jareth with a worried frown on his face. "Er… Yes, sire. Mask 'twas free of magic… It's Bone_drum_, by the way s-sire."

Jareth, ignoring the correction gritted his teeth in anger as he threw the goblin down on the cobble stoned floor. "_Free of magic_?" He roared, kicking Bonedrum with his right foot as the goblin's brothers cheered their king on. "_Free of magic_? Are you really so stupid as to not notice the fact that the mask _reeked of_ _magic_?"

Bonedrum stumbled backwards, his terrified gaze never straying from the goblin king's eyes as he replied, choosing his words carefully and cautiously, "I-I-I didn't see no magic s-sire, honest! If I did, I would've told 'ya, h-highness…"

The goblin's brothers laughed behind Jareth, watching on as their brother shook with sheer terror. Their laughter ceased as the goblin king turned around and walked over to them.

"You three…" He murmured, pausing to refrain his anger. "You're brother, _Bonedrum_, was given the simple task of ridding a certain mask of magic. He failed to do this, correct?"

The three goblins consulted each other with fleeting glances before they all nodded in time with each other.

Jareth frowned as he began pacing the small throne room. He stopped in front of the three goblins and spoke, staring out the window with a bored expression on his face, "I am led to believe that you" - he turned to face the trembling goblins - "did something to stop your brother from completing his task. Tampered with the mask, perhaps? Placed your own magic on it after Bonebrain here had rid it of magic? Correct?"

The three goblin's eyes widened in horror at his accusations. "N-nay, sire. We'd never do that." The second goblin piped up in a horribly squeaky voice, standing up for himself and his brothers.

Jareth let out an exasperated sigh and walked over to his throne, sitting down with a frown plastered on his face. _What in the underworld am I doing here, solving squabbles between a bunch of immature little imbeciles? All I ask for is for them to do what I say… must I do everything myself? _

He yawned, staring at the roof as he murmured absentmindedly, "You know what I do with liars?"

The three brothers looked at each other questioningly, before turning back to their kid and shaking their heads.

With a wave of Jareth's gloved hand, the goblins disappeared, leaving no trace of them ever being there. "Send them to the bog of eternal stench, of course." He muttered in a disinterested voice.

"_Janine_?" A woman's voice gasped. Jareth looked down at his crystal, finding a woman with short raven hair standing in the bathroom door, watching the 16-year-old anxiously. "_Janine, are you alright_?"

The goblin king stared at the woman with withdrawn eyes. The labyrinth's conqueror had not changed much. Her hair was much shorter now, reaching her shoulders in lush curls. Her figure was now that of a woman, not the awkward teenager she once was. She certainly had aged gracefully.

"Ah, Sarah. Age will never wear you, will it?" _A torment meant for me, I'm sure_. He added bitterly.

Janine wiped away the tear residue with her sleeve, her face taking on a very vacant look that hardly suited her. "_Yeah, I'm fine_."

Jareth grimaced, his gaze never straying from the crystal before him. She most obviously was not fine. The magic scented mask would take full effect soon, and these were just the first signs of it.

The silky black haired woman noticed the mask and picked it up, examining it with a look of horror on her face. Jareth stood up, dropping the crystal on the throne, not wanting to watch any longer.

"Once again, taking care of everything myself… you wouldn't think I was king of anything." He grumbled, throwing on a black coat and stepping out the window, falling gracefully to the ground beneath him. Before his feet could touch the cobble stoned city square, he turned into a white owl, flying away across the slowly darkening sky.

Sarah watched on as her daughter tentatively poked at her pasta with a fork. They were sitting at the table in the dining room, Janine sitting across from her mother: facing the television. They always ate like this, but Janine had never refused her dinner. Even if she did not like it.

"Darling, if you don't like it, then I can whip you up something else." She sighed.

The teenager looked up at her mother with tired eyes. "I'm not hungry." She murmured robotically, before continuing to poke her food.

Sarah bit her bottom lip, before picking up her daughter's bowl and taking it into the kitchen. "You have to eat something. You'll be sick if you don't, sweetie." She said, as she washed the dishes.

Janine grumbled in reply as her mother walked back into the dining room with a frown on her face. She sat down in front of her daughter and watched her face sadly.

"Honey, you should take the day off tomorrow if you're not feeling well."

The teenager nodded stiffly in reply, staring fixedly at the floor as if it was the only thing that mattered.

"But I do think you should eat. If you don't, then you will be even more sick tomorrow morning." She murmured, reaching out to hold her daughter's hand. Janine flinched, but none the less let her mother squeeze her hand.

"Okay," said Janine, her voice barely louder then a whisper, she stood up and walked into the kitchen. "I'll make something… to eat."

Sarah slumped her shoulders. Why did she have to be so secretive? Yes, she's a teenager, but that does not mean she has to tell her mother nothing of her day… She sighed and stood up; taking one more peek at Janine, who was poking around the fridge for something to eat, and walked into the lounge room.

The goblin king stood in the dark beside his daughter's bed, eyes on her troubled sleeping face. She had the blankets pulled up to her chin, despite the warm weather. Janine sniffled, rolling over to lie on her back. A small smile spread across Jareth's face.

The moonlight streaming through the window was enough to light up both their faces. The teenager let out an unintelligible stream of words, before groaning and beginning to chew her lip. The goblin king frowned and kneeled down beside her, brushing stray strands of hair from her eyes.

When his fingers brushed against her skin, he caught a glimpse of what she was dreaming. A ballroom much like the one Sarah and Jareth danced in so long ago. The chandeliers and mirrors were there. So were the white sheets and furnishings. But the dancers all stared at Janine, some laughing and some with their eyes wide with shock.

Jareth's hand withdrew from his daughter's face, a grimace disgracing his features. He leaned in close to Janine's ear and whispered her name repeatedly until her eyelids fluttered open.

At first, the girl's face portrayed sleepy confusion, then fear, and finally a mixture of the two. "Who are you?" She snapped before the goblin king could say a word.

"That hardly matters." He growled through gritted teeth, hoping her voice did not wake Sarah in the room next door. "You are ill, and I am here to make you feel better."

She raised a questioning eyebrow, but nonetheless allowed him to rest his right hand on her forehead. "Where am I?" Janine surprised him by asking this question so suddenly.

Jareth chuckled. "Who, what, where, when, why, how… you humans are so full of questions." He smiled fondly, raising his other hand which held a crystal firmly in it's grasp. "You are in your bedroom, precious."

"My bedroom?" She said with a furrowed brow, looking around the room without moving her head under the goblin king's gentle yet firm grasp.

"Yes, yes, yes. Now close your eyes and lie still." Jareth growled impatiently, all trace of humor gone.

Janine followed his orders, closing her eyes and lying still. The goblin king first put her into a deep sleep, then started working on removing all traces of the mask's magic from her body.

The crystal glowed briefly, before returning to normal as he finished the healing process.

Jareth stood up immediately, brushing his fingertips across her temple briefly before stepping outside the room and out into the hallway.

He inconspicuously passed Sarah's bedroom and walked into the lounge room, finding the open window he had flew in through there. The goblin king gave the pictures of his daughter that hang above the window a fleeting glance before preparing to change into his owl-form.

But before Jareth could so much as begin the transformation, a saucepan whacked him across the back of the head. The goblin king had no time to figure out what was going on before his legs gave way beneath him and he fell to the floor.

The room spun around him and he could still hear the ringing in his ears that had begun the moment the saucepan made contact with his head. He heard footsteps and a light turned on near him. But when he tried to look up, his head throbbed in protest and he lay it back down with a frustrated grunt.

Of course, being an immortal being of the underground, the injury would not be fatal or even draw blood at the very least. But it would leave one hell of a bump and plenty of pain in it's wake.

Someone called his name and a hand clutched his upper arm, shaking him roughly. He let out a groan, slipping into unconsciousness. Just before he was swallowed by a comforting darkness and deep sleep, a beautiful face framed by lush black curls stared at him with green eyes full of concern.

**Can anyone guess who the posters were of?**


End file.
